J.J. Abrams is teaming back up with Stephen King for another project. These two have worked together over the years on several projects and now they are going to be developing a limited series adaptation of King’s novel Billy Summers.
In the story, “Billy Summers is a hitman who is looking to retire, and takes one last highly lucrative job to feather his nest. The job requires him to embed himself in a quiet town, where he pretends to be an aspiring writer (he actually pours himself into the prose). He sets up in an office with a direct view of where hitman Joel Allen will be delivered to face trial for shooting two men during a poker game. Allen has also committed enough murders for some high-level mobsters to be scared the gunman will incriminate his former employers to lessen his sentence. Summers, a meticulous craftsman, becomes more and more cynical about the mobsters who’ve hired him, and his skepticism is well warranted as things go awry following completion of the job.”
This is a fun and different kind of story for Stephen King. As you know, he’s mostly known for his horror and supernatural stories. He’s also played in the fantasy realm and has played with other different kinds of genres. Billy Summers is a crime story and it’s great. This is the description from the book:
Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong?
Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz will write and adapted with Zwick directing. The series is said to end up consisting of six to ten episodes. The package will be shopped shortly to high end cable networks and streamers.
Some of the other projects that Abrams and King worked on together include Lisey’s Story, Castle Rock and 11.22.63. If you’re familiar with Billy Summers, do you think that this is going to make a great show?
Source: Deadline